Grubbynutz rolled one beady eye in the meks general direction and then hefted himself from his sitting position. Cursing, he rose and ambled over to where the mek was hopping up and pointing to something on the ground.

"You better tell me why I had to get up and walk all da way over 'ere!" growled Grubbnynutz, stamping his foot down.

"Sure 'ting, boss" Klickinklak said with a wincing nod, he pointed to a puddle goop by his feet "look at dis!". Grubbnynutz sighed.

"Klicky, for da last time, I'm not interested in what yer turds..." he trailed off. Far from being a piece of orkish offal, he could tell that the pile of goop used to be a human. Mainly because of the guardsman's uniform that it was still wearing. Nudging it with his foot, he noticed that it seemed to be heaving and sputtering in regular cycles, almost as if it was still alive...

He leveled his slugga and blasted it. An explosion of blood and gristle later and the thing had stopped moving. However, a keening wail now filled the area. Grubbynutz looked around for the source of this noise. He couldn't see it, but he could see the grotz now falling over themselves trying to run away.

"BOSS" screamed Klickinklak, pointing to the horizon "SPIKEY BOYZ!". Grubbynutz followed the direction of the mek's outstreched burna. Sure enough, two defilers and several vehicles had crested the hill.

Deployment: I end up going first. I put my boyz down in standard formation ("Ork Phalanx"?), with a slight catch. One slugga boy mob is flung way out to the west, away from KFF range. The battlewagon with the nobz is way out to the east. I figure either one of these will present a large enough to distraction from my main forces, who will be tasked with completing the mission objectives.

He decides to refuse a flank, putting his defilers in a corner (as far from loota fire as is possible to get) with the noise marines, bezerkers and daemon princes around them. The land raider is deployed alone in the middle of his deployment zone with the vindicator somewhere between this unit and his main force.

He seizes the initiative (two games in a row! Chaos really is unpredictable, I guess).Turn 1:

Chaos:Movement:Rhinos race up as fast as possible, while the daemon princes take position in the ruins of the chapel. The noise marines advance up the middle while the vindicator takes a better position on the hill. The land raider and defilers stay still.Shooting:The two princes lash my western lootaz somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 inches, bringing them close to the center of the board. He then blasts the hell out of them with his noise marines. Oh well. That's why I take two units. The defilers open up on the mek's squad and kill a handful. The lascannons from the land raider shoot at the dread but fail to hurt it, while the vindicator finds itself out of range.

Ork:Movement:Well, I can see what he's going to do with his lash, so I move my isolated squad back a bit. The kanz, dread and two boy mobz move and run forward. Unfortunately, the dread gets a bit carried away and outstrips the Kustom Force Field (d'oh!). I don't realize this until I roll a 1 for the mek squad's run. The battlewagon makes a bee-line towards the land raider.

Shooting:Lootaz open up on the vindicator, stunning it. Kan rokkitz fail to hurt it.

Turn 2:

Chaos:Movement:The bezerkers disembark from their rhinos and move up. The daemon princes sail through the air to get closer to the western boy mob. The noise marines inch forward a bit more. Land raider and defilers stay put.Shooting:Fire from the defilers and noise marines killing some boyz from the center squads. The land raider takes advantage of my mistake and explodes the deff dread (double d'oh!). The lash princes do their thing and move my boyz 16" towards his lines, putting them within charge range of both bezerker squads and a lash prince.

Close Combat:20 bezerkers + lash prince on the charge > mob of boyz. Due to this mathematical law, the slugga boyz are completely wiped out before they even have a chance to swing.

Ork:Rough. Well, time to make the best of it.Movement:Kanz pivot and move slightly closer to the daemon princes. Not too close, I don't want those beasts charging me. The middle sluggaz, having seen what happened to their friends, retreats through the woods and into the other side. Mek's squad mob moves up to hold objectives.

Shooting:Lootaz put a single wound on the topmost daemon prince. Kan rokkitz target the vindicator and blow its demolisher cannon off. One less template to worry about. The kanz blast the nearest khorne rhino, immobilizing it. That's as good as dead in an objective mission.

Note: Please observe that at this point in the game, I've killed a grand total of 0 models.Turn 3:

Chaos:Movement:The khorne bezerkers trip miserably over the walls (1 and 2 inches respectively). The weaponless vindicator cruises towards the center of the table, trying to set up for a ram on the kanz. The daemon princes stay put. As does everything else.

Shooting:THe lash princes lash my middle boy mob back over the trees they just crossed, out into the open and right up to one of the bezeker squads. Battle cannons from the defilers target the kanz but either miss or are blocked by the field. Some collateral damage is caused to the slugga boyz in the meks squad. Fire from the noise marine is mostly out of range, but they manage to get a few. The land raider, now that the chaos player realizes what my battle wagon's intentions are, fires at the battlewagon to no effect.

Close Combat:A single daemon prince and bezerker squad are all that can charge my just-lashed boyz. It proves to be enough however, as they wipe the squad out. I end up getting strikes however, wounding the daemon prince and killing a bezerker. The unfortunate bezerk is the first chaos casualty of the game. Both the prince and the 'zerks consolidate back over the low sandbag wall to get away from the kanz.

Orks:Movement:Battlewagon roars forward and drops off its nobz in front of the stationary land raider. The kanz move a little closer to the daemon prince/bezerker line, while the meks slugga boy squad spreads out into ordinance denial mode.

Shooting:Combined fire from the kanz and the lootaz drop the wounded prince. One less lash to deal with!

Close Combat:The Warboss and his nobz charge the land raider and explode it. No terminators or nobz die in the blast. Terminators escape unscathed and unpinned. Nobz take a wound or two.

Turn 4:

Chaos:Movement:The terminators move out of the ruins to try and get a good flamer shot on the nobz. Noise marines and defilers move towards the center. One squad of bezerkers crosses the wall but stays out of kan charge range. The other one comes up right behind the wall. The remaining lash prince flies up to the top of the hill in my deployment zone. The vindicator sets up for a ram (he could have done it this turn - perhaps he was trying to bait me away from the zerkers?).Shooting:Both defilers target the kanz. They manage one shaken result. The prince lashes the mek squad a mighty 11 inches, bringing them off the objective and closer to (but not in) charge range of the 'zerks. The terminators and the noise marines target the nobz. The kill 4 nobz and wound a couple more. They also put a wound on the boss. Nobz pass their leadership test.

Close Combat:The terminators charge in against the nobz and totally whiff. They manage to kill the painboy and a big choppa, leaving the boss, the banner boy and a power klaw boy, who flatten the terminators in reply. The nobz consolidate a mighty 6" towards the nearest noise marines. Time to kill a troop choice.

Orks:Movement:The nobz and warboss head towards the noise marines while the mek and his boyz extricate themselves from the woods and head back towards their objective (and AWAY from the mean red-armored marines). The kanz edge forward to get clear LOS on the prince.

Shooting:Lootaz get thirty shots and single-handedly destroy the final lash prince. The kanz try some ineffectual rokkit shots at the vindicator.

Close Combat:The kanz try and charge the vindicator, but can't make it over the difficult terrain. The boss and nobz charge the noise marines. The noise marines manage to kill the banner boy and bring the boss and the klaw down to one wound. Then the orks strike and kill 8 noise marines (after fearless saves).

Turn 5:

Chaos:Movement:The bezerkers once again trip over the walls, moving very slowly towards the objective. one squad makes it to within 3" however. The vindicator rams a kan, blowing it up (I only shook it with my death or glory) and the rhino moves down as well. He makes a mistake and leaves a gap between the vehicles big enough to fit a kan through. Unenaged noise marines move up to help their slaaneshi brothers in combat against the warboss.

Shooting:Defilers target the slugga boyz, blasting 5 or 6 of them despite spacing and cover.

Close Combat:The noise marines charge in. Thirty-four attack prove more than enough to kill the warboss and his last nob. Both noise marine squads consolidate a paltry 1 inch though.

Orks:Movement:The larger mob of kanz moves around the back of the vindicator to try and get a rear charge in. The smaller mob moves around the side. The battlewagon roars up to block the noise marines from the objective in the north, while the mek's sluggaz move onto one of mine (and get in running distance of another in my next turn.

Shooting:The lootaz explode the defiler on the hill. The kanz rokkitz into the vindicator are ineffective.

Close Combat:I charge into combat. The kanz fail to hurt the vindicator (which had moved at cruising speed the previous turn) but the movement is enough to bring into range to contest the one objective held by chaos.

We roll to see if the game ends and... it's a 2! Ork Victory!

Afterthoughts:

I feel that this is one of the better games I've played in a while. The balance off power seemed VERY heavily tilted to chaos in the beginning, but with a little luck (his consolidation rolls and difficult terrain rolls were TERRIBLE), I was able to turn this into a win for me. The fact that I was up against dual lash just makes the victory that much more sweet.

I think if it had gone another turn or two, it would have come down to whether he was able to kill off my sluggaz with shooting. I have a feeling that my kanz were in good position to deny the bezerkers their objective, but the noise marines would likely claim theirs.

« Last Edit: June 16, 2009, 02:46:41 PM by Droofus »

Logged

If you hold your entire army in reserve, you automatically forfeit the right to complain when your reserve rolls screw you.

Thanks for the compliments. Fixed the termy/land raider issue (I also realized that I left out the vindicator - oops!).

I thought he had me too! His mistake was nothing really in-game, but rather concentrating his forces too far from the objective. Immobilizing one rhino was pretty much all I did in turn 2, but it was pivotal in that his bezerkers had no ride so far from the objective. He could have ameliorated this by planning to refuse a flank and putting each of his objectives 12" from the short edges.

You're hit the nail on the hit as far as synergy goes. Especially against an army with no psychic defense like orks, it becomes extremely powerful. I'll definitely try and find ways to kill those princes earlier next time - before they drag half my army to their deaths.

@LarghterGlad you got something useful out of the report. Good luck against your orky foe (Unless he's playing Goffs )

Logged

If you hold your entire army in reserve, you automatically forfeit the right to complain when your reserve rolls screw you.

Another great battle report, Droofus, and another nail-biter at that. I'll admit, I was a little surprised by your opponent's list (especially by the Noise Marines). Clearly, this battle showed that they are more effective than most people give them credit for.